New laboratory BATLab HUG, Geneva

The BATLab project meets the desire for the process laboratories at Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) to be combined in one building, after having previously been distributed across various locations in the hospital complex. The new building has 10 upper floors and an area of around 13,000 m².

The BATLab parcel is situated in the northwest of the hospital site. The building's volume is adapted to the size and shape of the parcel, as well as to the existing buildings. The heights between floors are kept the same as those of the neighboring building, as the two buildings are connected. The new BATLab is dimensioned to suit the floors' diverse program. Emanating from the central laboratory areas, the height and depth of the volume develops according to the individual units' uses and requirements. All throughout the building, the floor plans are organized in a similar and flexible way, with the main laboratory areas (specially conceived for the various units) in the center. This central laboratory zone is delimited by the continuous installation shafts, which guarantees supply to the central plateau. The two ends of the building house the service areas, technical areas, vertical infrastructure, meeting rooms and cafeterias. These areas have large openings toward the exterior and interior.

The facade conveys both the modularity (1.10 m grid) and typology of the central laboratory zone, with workplaces arranged on the facade side. The materials are a combination of aluminum and glass, opacity and transparency, shade and sheen. The interplay between horizontality and verticality produces a web pattern that is rather dense in the center of the facade and gradually broadens out toward the building's edges.